Halloween: Bah humbug. Politics: well, well, well. Two months ago, the Liberals said, and I quote: I, Dalton McGuinty, leader of the Ontario Liberal Party, promise, if my party is elected as the next government, that I will: Not raise taxes or implement any new taxes without the explicit consent of Ontario voters; Now they’re in power, and what do we hear? Premier pledges to raise tobacco tax, cancel Tory tax cuts to deal with $5.6-billion deficit From zero to…

I just got back from the 2003 World Rock Paper Scissor Championships, held here in Toronto, and organized by the WorldRPS Society The grand champion, winning $5000, was a member of the “Legion of the Red Fist.” I was an official tournament referee there, so I’ll have an update later. Update. Photos from the event. The Official Photo Gallery.

Those crazy, sensitive Quebecers have their panties in a knot over Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain. This fictional game is to have a fictional mission in which you have to prevent fictional militant Quebec separatists from blowing up a Toronto subway station. Separatists (and the TTC) whined. Sony caved. They say they will remove the references. I’m curious as to how they’re going to “fix” this. Are they just going to apply the “Generic Arab” skin on the terrorist models,…

Gator has sued — and won — to keep its piece of shit “malware” from being called “spyware”. I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this… “If we find anyone publicly calling us spyware, we correct it and take action if necessary,” said Scott Eagle, Gator’s senior vice president of marketing. That Gator software is spyware of the worst kind. It’s also malware. Evilware. Advertising-asshole-ware. And, oh yeah, that Scott Eagle? He’s a clueless motherfucking marketing asshole that…

Mega64 has a video spoof of Shenmue [25MB]. The gag, as with similar jokes to this, is that the seemingly normal in a video game, when acted out in a real world situation, is absurd. Dave Chappelle did this with the car-jacking in Grand Theft Auto 3. These guys focus on the clue-seeking conversations with strangers that are common in Shenmue. The 2003 Dumbass Corporate Lawsuit Awards. The sad part is that they could, very likely, increase it from a…

USB Drives are interesting in that they are far more usable and portable than CDs, don’t require any special CD-RWs or Zip-Drives, and have far more capacity than old style floppies (though that one’s a given). Their small size also allows them to be integrated with other bits of technology, like the USB Watch. However, other than that and some miniscule mp3 players, I haven’t seen anything else interesting in this area. Until now. Here’s a cool little gadget: USB…

One last Kill Bill mention — until February. Via Google I came across Everything Tarantino which linked to the HKFlix Kill Bill Study Guide, and someone there links to a Tarantino interview that talks, at lenght, about all the references. This isn’t an art film mediation on these movies. This is the genuine article. The real deal. And that was one of the ideas behind splitting it in half. There just seems something pretentious about a three hour exploitation film.…

Fuck it. Despite what I previously said, I went to see Kill Bill. Here’s a 50 word review: Amalgamation of references and nods to Hong Kong action, Japanese samurai, anime, blaxploitation and other, mostly 70s era, pop culture presented under a Tarantino guise. [review to be continued] The problem with having such a strong homage movie is that you can find the references distracting. Especially if you don’t get the references. Rather than focus on what is being said or…

You have to admit, it is a catchy little tune. Na na na na na-na-na-na, na na na naa — FUCKING USA! Nintendo overdose: the game is infested with syntactically challenged old men who say things like, ‘Eastmost peninsula is the secret,’ when they mean, ‘Hang a right.’ Truly, one of the best aspects of the original Zelda. And, this is quite the television. 18 minutes of footage takes 3.5 terabytes. The footage was then shown to members of the…

And off I went to do the things I shouldn’t be doing: buying new games! First off, a Dreamcast is finally in my hands. Or, technically, on my floor. Got Shenmue along with it, and while it’s regarded by many as an essential Dreamcast title, the little time that I did spend with it has failed to captivate me. Nonetheless, now that I have that console, I can begin my search for my essential titles: Bangai-O; Mars Matrix; and Border…

For no reason other than for looking at them, here’s a bunch of paintings (and one collage) I like. Some of these fit my current mood; then again, they fit my always mood, which is probably why I like them in the first place.

I’m undecided as to what I’m going to do with Kill Bill. The movie comes out soon, and it is one of my anticipated “must see”s, but I have hesitations. It’s not that I don’t want to see the movie; it’s just that I have no wish to buy two movie tickets for what is, in essence, one movie. Miramax’s decision to split the movie into two is both perplexing and retarded. I can’t see how the argument that the…